Taking team time-outs is a common practice in a variety of sports – a time-out being a halt in play which allows a moment for the coach to communicate with the team. Teams/coaches usually call time-outs at strategically important points in the match in order to halt the momentum of the game if it is…
“We don’t seem to be making any meaningful headway. There’s conflict and back-biting amongst team members, each team is very protective of their respective pieces of turf and the business lacks focus”. I hear this quite frequently as I consult with companies – strategic goals not being executed effectively as a result of a lack…
How do companies keep up with or, better still, stay ahead of the curve with the ever-accelerating technological and cultural change that influences our world today? After all, the first text message was sent less than thirty years ago. Google has only been around for two decades, Facebook fifteen years and Twitter twelve years. Companies…
“Feeling isolated at work could be the difference between loving your job and dreading the thought of Monday morning” (Amy Simpson – Workplace) No matter how large or busy a company, many people carry the burden of feeling lonely and isolated at work. Often induced by an environment that is non-inclusive with respect to diversity…
Some of the worst decisions made by directors and managers in organisations are those that are made out of selfish interests. The seeming need for power, for being in control and for establishing a dynasty for oneself drives irresponsible behaviour – grabbing at sections of the budget allocated for other meaningful exploits, manipulating relationships to…
“Modern psychology has been co-opted by the disease model. We’ve become too preoccupied with repairing damage when our focus should be on building strength and resilience” (Martin Seligman, founder of the field of positive psychology) Employees, and many managers alike, often become stuck with limiting assumptions or debilitating paradigms – bonded to a story that…
The new information technology platform was not perfect, but it was a huge leap forward in comparison to the old, now outdated and cumbersome system that they had before. Data, and specifically artificial intelligence about buying trends, had been impossible to retrieve previously – the new and more innovative digital foundation would now finally empower…
For effective organisational change initiatives to be realised within a company, the success of the intended intervention requires a select group of people representative of all levels in the company who model the expected new behaviours, advocate the change benefits and campaign others to get on board. Changing behaviours and relinquishing old habits for new…
Most employees seem to have been on the receiving end of the workplace bully at some stage in their respective careers. The concept was probably first documented by Andrea Adams in 1992 in her book: “Bullying at work: How to confront and overcome it”, but the practice has existed for many centuries. Workplace bullying is…
I have been driving vehicles for many years now and enjoy the experience. One of the big problems faced by any driver of all vehicles is the inherent blind spots – areas outside the vehicle that the normal rear-facing mirrors can’t pick up. To overcome this problem, most vehicles have split rear-facing mirrors to reflect…
“Business leaders are increasingly focusing on risks that threaten to disrupt the fundamental assumptions of their organisations’ strategies. Prioritising such risks has become increasingly crucial – these risks cannot be handled in typical organisational silos, and they can destroy sources of value creation for the business. Yet, they also have the potential to form the…
The temptation to set stretch targets to achieve company goals within a short period of time is indeed something that the most realistic of leaders cannot resist. There is, however, a certain limit to which such change initiatives can be actualised as real solutions, as most complex problems are hardly going to be solved within…
